How competitve is a US district court clerkship?

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Huge difference between one in Idaho and one in SDNY. Impossible to generalize.

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SC1 is dead on. These “flyover” districts are competitive in a different way. For example, district judges in Kansas might rely heavily on recs from professors at Kansas law schools.

Where do you have ties? Focus there.

Depends on your credentials.

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Typically need to be top 5-25% depending on the district. Law review is almost always a requirement. Obviously need to be a good writer. Name of law school will make you more competitive almost all the time. Even judges in smaller districts will take a T14 over a more qualified non-T14. Basically depends on the district, application pool, and judge.

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there are roughly three tiers of competitiveness
1. SDNY, NDCA, DDC, NDIL (very desirable places to live + prestigious judges)
2. other cities that people want to live in, e.g. Boston, Portland, Nashville, Seattle
3. everything else

to get an "everything else" with no ties is actually not easy if the judge cares about ties. I'd say top 1/3 of a t14 is good enough if you're currently practicing (harder if you are in law school)

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EDNY is also pretty competitive, as is EDPa tbh. And CDCal of course.

I made a hard pitch for Alaska and was genuinely excited to go there for at least a year but couldn’t get any nibbles. Suspect the lack of any ties whatsoever was a hurdle.

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